Cong, allies’ anti-women stance blocked quota bill in Parl: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati: State assembly on Tuesday passed a govt resolution with an appeal for immediate one-third reservation for women in the Parliament and state assemblies, following the completion of delimitation.CM Himanta Biswa Sarma criticised Congress, claiming that they did not bring such a bill due to pressure from “anti-women” policies of allies like the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) when they had majority in the Parliament in the past. He alleged that they maintained this obstructive stance during BJP’s tenure.When CM started speaking on the resolution, Congress MLAs staged a brief walkout in the House. However, their walkout was in protest against remarks made by BJP MLA Bhuban Pegu against the opposition MLAs.The resolution was passed through voice vote after opposition MLAs returned.Citing Amit Shah’s remarks, Sarma said while BJP and its allies had supported the bill, had Congress wished, it could have got a two-thirds majority to pass the bill in 1996, 1998 or 2010.He said that had the bill been passed in April, it would benefit the state by increasing the number of assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in a smaller state like Assam. Sarma said that the idea was to increase the number of seats through delimitation so that women reservation did not create problems in the present structure, where assembly constituencies have representation by legislators from communities like SC and ST.Sarma alleged that Congress MLAs did not walk out to oppose a gesture by BJP MLA Bhuban Pegu, but due to their “anti-women” mindset. He claimed that they had “instruction from Delhi” to not be present in the assembly when the resolution was passed.